There are several reports on the preparation of a mesostructured film and a mesoporous material film each having a three-dimensional regular periodic structure. The preparation of silica mesostructured films having a cubic structure or a three-dimensional hexagonal structure through dip-coating using various surfactants has been reported in Advanced Materials, vol. 10, p. 1380 (1998). Further, an example in which using a double-headed ammonium surfactant containing two quaternary nitrogens bonded through a methylene group, a mesoporous silica film having a three-dimensional hexagonal structure is formed on a mica substrate through deposition has been reported in Chemistry of Materials, vol. 9, p. 1962.
Meanwhile, there are several reports on a technique of controlling a mesopore alignment of a mesostructured material at a macroscopic scale. A method using a polymer film subjected to rubbing treatment is reported in Chemistry of Materials, vol. 11, p. 1609.
However, in the above-described reports, there are some points to be improved.
First, a mesostructured film prepared through the solvent evaporation such as dip-coating has locally a three-dimensional regular structure on the substrate, but it is hard to highly control the regular structure across an entire substrate. In most cases, the structure is isotropic or slightly anisotropic to in-plane rotation when the structure of the entire substrate is averaged out. Further, in a technique of forming a mesostructured film having a three-dimensional regular structure through deposition on a substrate retained in a precursor solution, control of mesopore arrangement across the entire substrate has not been confirmed at a macroscopic scale. Further, a usable substrate is limited to mica, and a very special surfactant is needed.
Further, in a conventional technique of controlling orientation of mesopores in mesostructure silica at a macroscopic scale, the target structure is limited to a tubular pore structure of a two-dimensional hexagonal structure.